


Therapy Sessions (Pt. 1/3)

by MKZ4345



Series: TAZ Therapy Sessions [1]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Therapy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-17
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2019-06-28 20:39:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15714684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MKZ4345/pseuds/MKZ4345
Summary: The crew has had time, and Lucretia feels like they should talk about it. She's hired a therapist for the Bureau, called everyone back, and is ready to stir some things up. Hopefully they make it out the other side.





	1. Therapy

**Author's Note:**

> I originally wrote this just after I listened to the finale, so some of the raw feelings and thoughts I had came out in this. Note, there are some canon divergences, namely their meetings (I'm not a maxfun sponsor so I haven't listened to the bonus eps). Most of this is headcanon concerning their interactions and feelings with each other. I hope it's enjoyable!

The Bureau of Benevolence was still a wonderful place for meet-ups. Lucretia was often out on her own missions, so she wasn’t usually a part of the group’s get-togethers. However, recently, in the nature of helping everyone recover in all the ways they need to, Lucretia has hired a therapist for the Bureau. Therefore, this time when the group got together and Lucretia was expectedly out, they were greeted by a smiling face they had never seen before.

An elf, no shorter than Magnus and no thinner than Taako, stands with a smile as everyone piles out of their respective transportation bubbles. He is wearing something close to what a priest would, however he is also wearing all kinds of B.o.B. memorabilia. Lup scoffs at the sight and Barry scolds her silently.

“Welcome, dear Birds!” The elven man walks toward their growing group as they come together in the hangar bay. “I’m sure you heard from Madam Director, but I am the Bureau’s new and first therapist!”

“Yes,” Magnus says, walking up to him with a smile. “We heard from her that you’ll be talking with everyone?”

“Yes, that’s correct.” The elf turns and shakes Magnus’ outstretched hand and then turns back to the group. “My name is Reese. I hope we can all get to know each other quite well.”

After some halfhearted nods and “me too”s, the group moves to the commons, where it basically turns into a waiting room. Lucretia hadn’t meant for it to turn into a mandatory thing, but became rather forceful at Taako and Angus’ insistence that they didn’t need it. Lup was indifferent, not expecting much out of it. Magnus had been to therapy before, so he was ready and willing. Barry was curious, so he agreed. Kravitz didn’t know why he was included on the list, but wasn’t about to go against Lucretia’s wishes. As for Merle, he was sure that therapy was bullshit. He didn’t believe in it, just like he didn’t believe in herbal medicines. Lucretia had all but begged for him to try it once, and he decided he never wanted to see Lucretia beg, so he agreed.

“Alright, who would like to go first?” Reese asks the quiet common room. Every one of the Bureau’s employees were sitting somewhere in the room, though only a select few were required to see Reese.

To absolutely everyone’s surprise, Lup raises her hand after only a minute. She stands and says, “Better get mine over with, I had other things planned for the day.”

“Of course, Miss Lup, it’ll just be an hour of your time.” Reese bows gently, motioning her to the door of an old bedroom re-purposed for the therapy sessions.

As the door shuts behind Reese and Lup, Barry watches in utter confusion as to why Lup decided to go first. It was definitely not because she just wanted to get it over with, Barry was sure about that fact. There was something she needed to get off her chest, something she couldn’t even tell him. Wait, perhaps that’s over thinking it…

Regardless, Lup and Reese started their session, and as they did, a timer popped up in front of the door, counting down from sixty.


	2. Lup

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lup's therapy session.

“So, how exactly does this work?” Lup asks, flopping down in the big fluffy chair across from Reese. “You ask a bunch of questions and I tell you about my dad or something?”

“No,” Reese chuckles. “Thought I don’t fault you for not knowing much about therapy.”

Lup sniffs and looks around the room.

“No, what I’ll do is listen. If you have a question for me, then I’ll answer it for you to the best of my ability, but I’ll only ask questions that you have the answers to.”

Lup’s eyebrows draw together and she looks back at him.

“Now, what’s on your mind?” Reese opens his small notepad and gets his pencil in position to start writing.

Lup is silent for much too long, but then settles on starting with saying, “I’m a lich.”

Reese writes something down without looking and nods, as if to encourage her to keep going.

“And,” She tries. “I’m an alien.”

Reese simply waits.

“I became a lich a really long time ago, and I don’t regret it.” A statement. However, Reese catches something in her tone.

“Are you sure of that?” Reese asks, crossing his ankles. “You seem to be trying to convince yourself that that’s the truth. Do you think that’s right at all?”

“No.” Lup’s response is sharp and unforgiving, but her face softens after a moment. “Maybe…”

“Tell me more about this, why did you become a lich?”

“Well, it was mostly because it would make me and Barry more powerful so that we could take on the Hunger and be more well-equipped.”

“Mostly?”

“Well…” Lup rests her head on her hand. “It was also to avoid death, really.”

“Death is scary,” Reese says, nodding.

“Just the act, the person is nice,” Lup responds, chuckling to herself. “But yeah, I didn’t feel like it, I guess. Dying sucks, and it sucks more when it’s permanent.”

“I agree.”

“But that’s the reason, yeah.” Lup isn’t sure she’s satisfied with that answer, but she’s done answering this question.

“Okay, so tell me a bit more about being a lich, I’m not quite sure myself.” Reese writes something down, then turns his full attention back to Lup.

“Well, being a lich is a lot like being a regular person, except you’re a soul combined with your pure arcane magic basically possessing your dead body, so a little different…”

If Reese is surprised at all, he doesn’t show it one bit.

“When you become a lich, you have to have a strong connection to something corporeal, something real and living,” Lup explains. “I call them Anchors. Barry is one of my Anchors, and so is Taako.”

“Taako, your brother?”

“Yes, my twin brother.” Lup nods. “Emotional connections keep you anchored to reality as a lich, otherwise you’ll just be consumed by the pull of the arcana, and be basically torn apart.”

“Dangerous decision,” Reese notes. “Though, you and Barry seem to have handled it quite well.”

“Thanks.”

“So, you Anchored yourself to Taako and Barry; was this difficult?” Reese asks.

“No, it’s just the same as having a rad birthday and taking tons of pictures to remember it when you want to.”

“So an almost smooth transition?”

“With lots of necromantic magic, but yes.”

“Can we take a small detour from liches?” Reese asks, flipping to the next page of his notepad. “I’d like to ask about your Anchors, if I may?”

“Go ahead.”

“Taako, your brother, how close are you to him?”

“He’s my heart.” Lup’s words tumble out of her before she thinks of them, and she’s hit with a wave of emotion, remembering talking to Taako that day.

“Very close, then.”

“He’s my baby brother, my reflection, my one and only blood relation. I would, and have, murdered for him.”

“You would do anything for his safety, am I correct in that assumption?”

“Anything.” Lup’s voice is almost desperate. She clears her throat.

“I think I heard that you and Taako didn’t come from much, is that correct?” Reese changes to a proper conversation starter.

“Yes, I’d rather not talk about the whole… Parents thing, but we moved around a lot as kids. It was actually really upsetting and sad, but at the time we still had family members.”

“You don’t anymore?”

“Even if we did, they aren’t in this planar system.”

“Ah, I see.”

“Anyway, we had a shitty start, but we studied like crazy to be able to get into a boarding school.”

“Is that where you perfected your areas of magic?”

“It’s where we learned them,” Lup corrects. “We found our respective areas of magic there, but it was the IPRE where we really got good.”

“What does that stand for?”

“Institute of Planar Research and Exploration,” Lup explains. “Taako loved space, and I was interested in spaceships at the time, so we worked hard to get accepted into the program.”

“And that’s where you met everyone else?”

“Yeah, almost everyone out there we met at the IPRE” Lup sighs.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, I just miss those days, where everything was new and interesting. Where we didn’t know about the Hunger.”

Reese doesn’t respond for a moment, seeing if she’ll continue.

“But whatever, the IPRE was good, we got better at everything and made friends, and you know the rest.”

“True, I do know about your one hundred years after that.” Reese nods. “Let’s move on, okay?”

Lup nods, pulling her legs onto the chair to sit criss-crossed.

“Tell me about you.” Reese points with his pencil at her. “We only have so much time, and I want to know what could possibly bother someone as confident as you.”

Lup scoffs, then says, “I’m not that confident.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.”

“Lup, I only ask questions you know the answer to, so why?”

“… Being alive again is scary sometimes.”

“Why?”

“I can feel so much, sometimes I get overwhelmed.”

Reese waits.

“But sometimes, when I sleep, or when it’s dark, I start to feel like I can’t feel again, and I get scared.”

“Why?”

“I was trapped in an umbrella, and I was a lich at the time, so I couldn’t feel for a while.”

“So this causes you to get scared when a similar feeling occurs?”

“Yeah,” Lup sighs, looking down.

“Tell me about that.”

“… I have nightmares where I’m still in there, where I can see and hear Taako, but he doesn’t remember me, he can’t see me, he can’t hear me…”

“Lup, look at me.”

She raises her head, not realizing the tears in her eyes are about to fall.

“I can’t imagine how horrible that must be, and I can’t imagine how terrifying that must feel in the moment.” Reese sets his pencil down. “But I think with time, reassurance, and help, you can heal from this.”

It’s Lup’s turn to wait.

“I think you’re suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. And I think that many other people out there are too. You’re afraid of something happening and disrupting your newfound peace, so your brain replays your trauma in your sleep to try and keep you alert.” Reese sets his notepad aside. “I think we should set up weekly visits and start thinking about other types of therapy for you.”

“Other types?” Lup tilts her head to the side.

“Where you simply sit in a dark room with someone, one of your Anchors, and remember that you are alive, and that the darkness can’t hurt you anymore, for example. Or where you meditate and listen to positive affirmations. I think you’re too worried about the past and the future, and that you need to try and keep yourself in the now. But it’s up to you, whether or not you feel these things are impeding your life enough to fix or even change them.”

Lup nods, looking down again.

“I think more sessions would be most helpful right now, what do you think?”

“… I think so, yeah…” Lup sits up, looking back at Reese. “Thanks.”

“All in a day’s work.”

The timer outside goes off, and Reese stands.

“Let’s take five, and then I’ll take the next person in, okay?”

Lup nods.


	3. Intermission

Not all therapy is the same. Not all treatment is the same. Some people progress faster than others. Some people can’t get past their demons as easy as others. When Lup walks out of the room, Taako and Barry stand up, clearly having worked themselves into a panicked silence.

“Lulu?” Taako calls, taking a step forward.

“Yeah?” Lup raises an eyebrow. “Oh, both of you, chill out. We just talked, that’s what therapy is.”

Reese chuckles, pouring himself a cup of coffee in the kitchen area.

“What did you talk about?” Barry asks.

“Stuff, babe. Just stuff.” Lup sighs, sitting on the couch. “Man, I’m tired now.”

“Strangely, that tends to happen with most of my clients,” Reese says, walking back to the common room. “Who’s next?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end of the first chunk of therapy sessions! The second of three chunks will be posted soon!

**Author's Note:**

> This is also the first of a series. It was hard to figure out how to split these up, but I think I'll do this chunk (Therapy/Lup/Intermission) and then two other chunks (Magnus/Merle/Intermission 2, and the rest which is a lot.)


End file.
